Monday, March 2, 2009

Trekking up Connecticut

I met some dudes at the Chevy Chase Store on Sunday morning for a long run. I had fallen asleep at 3:30am and was up by 7:00am (cockatiels won't let me sleep in). After binging on coffee for an hour, I hustled over to the run and we started out running down the CCT...before jumping on the Towpath and finding our way to Georgetown. I kept quipping about our pace and whispering to others asking whether we were rolling or whether my night of tomfoolery and Saturday race were catching up to me. I checked some splits and noticed we were running 6:45 pace. Nothing too crazy, but I decided to linger off the back of the pack (which included Max, Matias, Dickson, Mike C, Reaves/Murphy, Billy and an equally sleep deprived Dylan). We all turned at the Rock Creek Parkway/Canal Towpath intersection and headed back north. For the past 8 miles we had been (gently), running downhill. But now we would begin the uphill battle back to Maryland. After a few bathroom breaks, our truncated pack (Max, Matias, Reaves, Murphy and Billy) reached the Md/DC line mostly taking Connecticut Ave all the way. I've decided I love running on Conn Ave on the weekends. Crowds are out and the road contains some great hills. Today light snow pelted our faces. Our pack, sans Max/Matias, decided to add on another 15 minutes and make it a 16 mile day. My legs went from feeling blah, to feeling very strong...to feeling tired.

Some items to note:- The once omnipresent Max Lockwood appears to be back. He pushed and made an honest effort of the run. It is good to see him back.

- Just before one hour, a woman (named Kendra) who was running towards us, stopped, U-Turned and then started chugging along with us. I am not sure if the rest of the guys even noticed at first since she was at the back of the pack, but she had no trouble running 6:15 pace. She is training for Boston.

- Matias made a good point. It might be good training to run 16 miles sleepless with tired legs. Makes you stronger?

I ended up only running 76 miles last week after taking Friday off. I am glad I did. My Achilles (is this capitalized?) feels much better. I've averaged 82 miles over the last 2 months. This may not seem like too much compared to what some do, but this is a big increase for me. And I think it's working.

I attended the Montgomery County Road Runners Club Banquet last night where I was honored with the title Runner of the Year (2008). I've been a member of MCRRC off and on since arriving in DC almost 7 years ago. They have about 3600 members I first came upon some members of the group after a training run from Walt Whitman HS. Jim Whitnah, Mark Hoon, Rob Magin and a youngster named Paul Anderson were doing a workout on the WWHS track. I had just "retired" from racing, but the temptation to push myself again soon took over. I began hitting the track with the group and ran many of their races. Each year I'd gear up for the club's Capital Crescent 5K where I'd go for broke. Their race directors are some of the most dedicated volunteers in the DC running community. When I retire from all this nonsense, I hope I can give back to the sport as much as these folks have.